Musk Casts Doubt on Trump’s $100 bn Alliance of OpenAI, Softbank, Oracle on A.I.
Mr. Trump had claimed the A.I. announcement
as an early trophy, taking credit for the companies’ decision to spend up to $500
billion building data centers.
·
Mr. Musk said
that the venture, dubbed Stargate, did not have the financing to achieve the
promised investment levels.
·
companies’
decision to spend up to $500 billion building data centers, which are huge
buildings full of servers that provide computing power.
·
Stargate
already has $100 billion in hand, two people familiar with the venture said.
SoftBank, OpenAI, Oracle and MGX, an investment group
in the United Arab Emirates that focuses on A.I., provided the financing.
·
Mr. Musk
formed a rival called xAI in 2023, well after a boom
in the technology that included the debut of OpenAI’s
ChatGPT. The start-up recently
raised $6 billion in funding.
· Mr. Musk also is the chief executive of Tesla and the rocket company SpaceX.
[ABS News Service/23.01.2025]
Elon Musk is casting doubt on the first major tech
investment announcement made by President Trump,
openly questioning the administration he now serves.
On Tuesday, Mr. Trump announced a joint
venture between OpenAI, SoftBank and Oracle to create at least $100 billion in computing infrastructure to power artificial
intelligence, some of which is already underway.
But in two late-night messages on X, Mr. Musk said that the venture, dubbed Stargate, did not have
the financing to achieve the promised investment levels.
“They don’t have the money," Mr. Musk
wrote in reply to an OpenAI post on the announcement.
“SoftBank has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority.”
The dismissal by Mr. Musk, who is one of Mr.
Trump’s closest advisers and will head up an agency created to slash the nation’s
budget, is one of his first public breaks with the administration. It’s also an
unusual move for any senior policy official to question an initiative trumpeted
by the president.
Mr. Trump claimed the A.I. announcement as
an early trophy, taking credit for the companies’ decision
to spend up to $500 billion building data centers, which are huge buildings full of servers that provide computing
power. Mr. Trump promised to clear regulatory hurdles for the development
of A.I. and to make the United States a global leader in the technology, beating
out China.
“The American people should take President
Trump and those C.E.O.s’ words for it,” Karoline Leavitt, the White House press
secretary, told Fox News on Wednesday. “These investments are coming to our great
country, and American jobs are coming along with them.”
Stargate already has $100 billion in hand, two people familiar with the venture
said. SoftBank, OpenAI, Oracle and MGX, an investment group in the United Arab Emirates that focuses
on A.I., provided the financing.
(The New York Times has sued OpenAI and its partner, Microsoft, claiming copyright
infringement of news content related to A.I. systems. The two companies have denied
the suit’s claims.)
Mr. Musk has been battling with OpenAI’s chief executive, Sam Altman. Mr. Musk, who helped found
the company, has sued OpenAI and Mr. Altman for antitrust violations.
Mr. Musk formed a rival called xAI in 2023, well after a boom in the technology
that included the debut of OpenAI’s ChatGPT. The start-up recently raised $6 billion in funding.
Mr. Altman took to X Wednesday morning to refute
Mr. Musk’s assertions.
“Wrong, as you surely know,” Mr. Altman wrote.
“Want to come visit the first site already under way?”
Mr. Musk and Mr. Trump have grown close over
the past few months after the tech mogul came out in support of the president’s
campaign, eventually donating more than $250 million to back his run. Mr. Musk,
the world’s richest man according to the Bloomberg Billionaires
Index, became a vocal supporter, using his megaphone
on his social media company X to stump for Mr. Trump.
Mr. Musk also is the chief executive of Tesla and the rocket company SpaceX.
“Elon Musk is a walking conflict of interest,”
said Craig Holman, government affairs lobbyist for the nonprofit
consumer advocacy organization, Public Citizen. “People throughout history have
tried to influence government, but what makes him so unique is his close friendship
with Donald Trump, along with the breadth of his businesses that are affected by
government contracts, tax and other public policies.”
Mr. Musk did not immediately respond to a request
for comment.
During the presidential transition, Mr. Musk
planted himself
in a cottage at Mar-a-Lago with easy access to planning
meetings. He’s been omnipresent by Mr. Trump’s side, bringing Mr. Trump to a SpaceX
rocket launch, attending Mr. Trump’s New Year’s Eve party and sitting with other
tech moguls at the inauguration on Monday.
On Wednesday, Mr. Musk reposted commentary
from a tech investor that repeated claims that the Stargate initiative didn’t have
enough funding. The post by Gavin Baker, managing partner and chief investment officer
at Atreides Management, said that “Stargate is a great
name but the $500b is a ridiculous number and no one should take it seriously,”
unless Softbank was willing to sell off certain assets.